People are always afraid of both visible dangers and, especially, invisible ones. Panic fear is an attempt by the psyche to escape from real unresolved problems, and here there is always some conspiracy theory “at hand”: communist, imperialist, Judeo-Masonic, Wahhabi, or any other. On the one hand, a person stops looking for the causes of his troubles in himself, which is psychologically very comfortable; on the other hand, this is very profitable for real rulers, without any “conspiracies,” because a frightened person is very easy to govern.

God offers the perfect “medicine for fear.” There is one most real Ruler, Almighty and All-seeing, and at the same time Invisible and Incomprehensible. Whom can one fear if not Him? Whom else should one obey? But He is precisely the One who says: “Do not fear and do not be afraid.”

Today's reading includes a messianic hymn (vv. 1-7) linking the Messiah's earthly ministry with Galilee - a place of no religious distinction. There were no major Yahwist religious centers here like those that existed farther south, in Samaria, and Jerusalem with its Temple was, by local standards, rather far away. But none of this prevented Galilee from hearing the preaching of the Messiah-Christ or from becoming the place where the Savior's childhood passed.

External greatness and ancient tradition do not always help the work of God. Who knows what Jesus' childhood would have been like if He had spent it not in quiet Nazareth, but in Jerusalem? God's plan often requires quietness and hiddenness, especially at the first stages, when its fulfillment is only beginning. Human plans, by contrast, often assume from the very start noise, fame, and the earthly greatness that fallen man loves so much (vv. 8-10).

Today's reading not accidentally contrasts despised Galilee with the Kingdom of Israel. The irony of the situation was that Galilee belonged, though not completely, to this state, but was considered in it a remote backwater, of no interest to anyone and of no distinction. All the large cities and all the important political and religious centers of the country lay farther south, in Samaria. Galilee, however, was a border region already partly settled by Gentiles (which is why the prophet calls it "of the nations," v. 1). But centuries passed, and of the Kingdom of Israel, whose rulers were proud of the greatness of their, in essence, quite small country, only memories remained. And the most famous city in this land today is not even Bethel, which was the religious capital of the North and one of the most ancient Yahwist religious centers, but Nazareth, which in the flourishing era of the Northern Kingdom did not yet exist at all and later was by no means distinguished by fame until it was glorified by the One to whom Isaiah bore witness.

Faced with a military threat, Judah found itself before a political choice: either to make an alliance with Syria and Samaria against Assyria, or the reverse. Having sided with the Assyrians, King Ahaz awaits an attack from the north. But the prophet reminds him that the Lord is the true ruler of history, and that it is with Him that an alliance must be made.

And we too, when we find ourselves in a difficult situation, often do not know whom to turn to for help. But if we have already made a covenant with God, should we not turn to Him first of all?